A Texan conservative Anglican -- yes, a square peg -- ponders both churchly and worldly things and enjoys his new church.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Post-Charlottesville, The Double Standard Continues

After the awful events in
Charlottesville, there has been an odd, but familiar phenomenon.There are the rightful denunciations of
the Nazis, KKK, etc.But if
someone even asks the denouncers if they have ever also denounced Antifa and
Black Lives Matters, two groups who also have demonstrated racism and political
violence, then even that question gets denounced.Those who denounce both the Nazi types and Antifa and BLM,
and who denounce double standards also get very similar treatment.I’ve seen this sorry exercise even on
the Facebook group page of the Anglican Church of North America, which is
shameful.

This is an in-your-face
example of a big double standard that has poisoned politics and the study of history
since World War 2. While the
atrocities of the “Right”* are emphasized, the atrocities of the Left are
downplayed or ignored, even if those atrocities are of a much greater scale.The History Channel once was dubbed the
Hitler Channel because of the frequency of its emphasis on Nazism and its
atrocities. And certainly we should “never forget.”But how often does one see documentaries of the atrocities
under Lenin and Stalin, who killed millions more than Hitler?

Of course, there is much
more to the study of history than the History Channel – thank God – but the
phenomenon can be found across academia as well.And when someone tries to provide some balance and focus on
Communist evil, they often get grief for it.The controversy that surrounded the publication of the Black Book of Communism is one example.

I detest this double
standard, which only enables the Leftist New Totalitarians, who are a much
greater danger than the KKK, neo-Nazis, and other loons.If someone has been silent for over a
year as Antifa has violently attacked peaceful demonstrators, Trump supporters,
free speech, even those who simply wanted to hear a speaker, then his/her display
of indignation over white supremacist violence is worth very little to me.

And, yes I will say it,
President Trump was right to denounce violence from both sides.And he was courageous to do so in the
face of those who hate truth-telling about the Left.

By the way, these kind of
double standards just feed hate.Denouncing rightist hate while being silent about or even praising
Leftist hate throws gasoline on hate.The double standards must stop.The political violence from both
sides must be denounced and stopped.

---

* I use “right” very
loosely here.Placing, say, Nazis
on the right is highly questionable as they are a form of totalitarianism not
very different from Communism.